Bible Commentaries

Their secret; or, counsel, or company, as the word is used, Psalm 64:2 Jeremiah 15:17; i.e. do not partake with them in their secret and wicked designs. Hereby he signifies to all posterity, that that bloody enterprise was undertaken without his consent or approbation, and that he could not think of it without detestation, nor let it pass without a severe censure. Or, O my soul, thou wast not in their secret, as the Chaldee, Syriae, and Arabic take it, by a common enallage of the future tense for the past.

Mine honour; either,

1. Properly so called. So the sense is, Let not my honour or good name be bound up with theirs; they gloried in this wickedness, which I abominate, and which indeed is their shame. Or,

2. Improperly; so he understands either,

3. His soul, which is indeed the glory of a man, though I do not remember any place of Scripture where that word must necessarily be so understood. So this is a repetition of the same thing in other words, which is usual in Scripture. Or rather,

4. His tongue, for which the word honour or glory is commonly put, as Psalm 16:9, compared with Acts 2:26 Psalm 30:12 57:8 108:1, because the tongue or speech is the glory of a man, by which he is distinguished from unreasonable creatures, and, if well used, it brings much honour to God, and to the man that speaks with it. So the sense is, As my soul did not approve of that wicked action, so my tongue never gave consent to it, nor shall it now by silence seem to own it, but shall publicly witness my abhorrence of it.

In their anger they slew a man, i.e. men, the Shechemites, Genesis 34:25,26, the singular number for the plural, as Genesis 3:2 32:5 1 Chronicles 10:1, compared with 1 Samuel 31:1. He saith man rather then men, either with respect unto the prince, whose slaughter was principally designed, or to show that they slew them all to a man.

In their self-will: it may note, that this cruelty of theirs was committed,

1. By their own will and choice, not by Jacob’s will or consent, which they never asked nor obtained.

2. Without any necessity or sufficient provocation, but merely by their own will and proper motion.

3. Not rashly and hastily, but wilfully and resolvedly, after mature deliberation.

4. Not unwillingly, but cheerfully, and with delight and good will, as that word commonly signifies.

They digged down a wall; not the walls of the city, but of private houses; it may be only of the prince’s house, who upon the first noise of the tumult might, and probably did, retire and secure himself in some strong room of the house, whose wall they brake down that they might come at him. For neither were the walls of houses or cities so strong then as now many are; nor were Simeon and Levi destitute of fit instruments to break down a wall, which doubtless they brought with them, as easily foreseeing that difficulty in their enterprise. But because the Hebrew word is not shur, a wall, but schor, an ox, others translate the words thus, they houghed, or killed an ox, or bull, meaning Shechem, so called either from his lust, or from his strength and power, from which princes are oft so called, as Deu 33:17 Psalm 22:12 68:30. Or rather thus, they rooted out, or drove away an ox, i.e. the oxen, the singular number for the plural, as before; and under them are comprehended the other cattle of the Shechemites, which they drove away, as we read they did, Genesis 34:28. For as the words may bear this sense, so it seems more reasonable to understand them of that which certainly was done by them, than of their breaking a wall, of which we do not read any thing in the history.

Cursed be their anger, or, cursed was. It was execrable and abominable both before God and men; such as deserved and brought the curse of God upon themselves, which I, as God’s instrument, am now to pronounce against them.

I do here declare, in the name of God, that they shall be divided and dispersed

in Jacob, & c.; that is, among the children or tribes of Jacob or Israel. Prophets are said to do what they foretell that God will do, as Jeremiah is said to root out and pull down kingdoms, Jeremiah 1:10, and Ezekiel to destroy the city, Ezekiel 43:3. Add Hosea 6:5. Note here how suitable their punishment was to their crime. They sinned by conspiracy and confederation in the counsel and action, and they are punished with division or separation, not only of the two brethren and their tribes, but of the children and families of the several tribes, one from another. This was eminently fulfilled in the tribe of Levi, which had no proper portion or inheritance, but was scattered among all the tribes, Joshua 18:7, though afterwards God turned this curse into a blessing. And for Simeon, he had no part of his own in the division of the land; but the portion of Judah being too large for that tribe, he was taken into that lot, and was as an inmate to them, Joshua 19:1,2,9, and afterwards part of them were forced to seek new seats, and so were divided from the rest of their brethren, 1 Chronicles 4:27,39,42. And moreover, the Jewish doctors write, that that tribe was so straitened in their habitations and conveniences, that a very great number of them were forced to scatter themselves amongst the other tribes to get a subsistence by teaching their children.

Or rather,

Thou art

Judah, thy brethren shall praise or celebrate thee. So the expression is like that 1 Samuel 25:25.

As his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him, or in him. So here the sense is, As thy name signifies praise, Genesis 29:35, so shalt thou have praise or honour from thy brethren. He alludes to his name, and to the occasion of it, but with an elegant variation. Thou art deservedly called Judah, not only because thy mother praised God for thee, but also because thy brethren shall praise and bless thee for the reasons here following. But this, as also the other blessings or predictions, do not so much declare the state of Judah or the rest in their own persons, as in their posterity.

Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, i.e. thou shalt overthrow and subdue them. This was fulfilled in part, Judges 1:1,2,4 3:9,10; but more fully in David, 2 Samuel 8:1, and Solomon, 1 Chronicles 12:9; and most eminently, though spiritually, in Christ. The phrase is taken either,

1. From the practice of warriors, who use to assault their enemies in that part, that they may throw them down at their feet; of which see Job 15:26 16:12. Or,

2. from the custom of conquerors, who are said to put the yokes upon the necks of the conquered. See Genesis 27:40 Deu 28:48 Isaiah 10:27 Jeremiah 27:8 28:14.

Thy father’s children, i.e. all thy brethren, and my posterity; he saith not thy mother’s children, for his sons had divers mothers;

shall bow down before thee, i.e. shall own thee as their superior and lord, upon whom I have devolved this part of the right of the first-born. By this and the following words we plainly see that these blessings and predictions were not distributed according to Jacob’s affections and inclinations, (for then Judah should never have been advanced above his worthily beloved Joseph,) but by the direction of God’s Spirit.

Judah is as

a lion’s whelp, or as a young lion, for courage, and strength, and terror to his enemies. The particle as is here wanting, as also Genesis 49:14,17,21,22, and in many other places, as Psalm 11:1 12:6 22:6, &c. And he is rightly compared first to a lion’s whelp, then to an old lion, to signify the growth of that tribe in strength and interest; and that from small beginnings, and a precedency of order only, Judges 1:1,2, it should ascend to the height of honour, and power, and happiness in David, and especially in the Messiah, who should conquer all nations.

From the prey... thou art gone up. Having taken the prey, i.e. conquered thine enemies, thou art

gone up in triumph; or gone up, i.e. grown greater and higher after thy victories, as the manner is. Or he alludes to the lions, which usually dwell in mountains, as divers writers observe, and come down to prey in the valleys, and when they have got their prey, they go up to their habitations, and so shall Judah do.

He stooped; a change of the person very frequent in prophetical writings, as we shall oft have occasion to note hereafter.

He couched. When he hath taken the prey, he doth not convey it away to his den with haste and speed for fear the enemy should return and overtake him, but like a lion he stoops down to feed upon his prey, and coucheth or lieth down securely to rest himself after he hath eaten it, without the least fear of any enemy, as it is observed of him, Isaiah 31:4. Judah’s conquests shall not be interrupted or followed with ill successes and defeats or overthrows afterward, as it frequently happens in the course of war, but he quietly possess his spoils, and after the bloody wars, to which he will be forced, shall enjoy a sweet peace and tranquillity, which his posterity did, 1 Kings 4:25.

As an old lion, or rather a grown lion, not a decrepit and impotent lion, but one come to his full strength; who shall presume or dare to disturb or provoke him? All shall fear him, and seek peace with him.

The secptre, i.e. the dominion or government, which is oft expressed by this word, as Numbers 24:17 Psalm 45:6 Isaiah 14:5 Ezekiel 19:11,14 Am 1:5,8 Zec 10:11, because it is an ensign of government, Esther 4:11. So it is a figure called a metonomy of the sign, than which nothing more frequent. The sense is, That superiority or dominion over his brethren, which I said he should obtain Genesis 49:8 he shall keep; it shall not depart from him. Others, the tribe, as the word shebet signifies, 1 Samuel 10:19-21 1 Kings 11:32, &c. So the sense is this, Whereas the other tribes shall be captivated, dispersed, and confounded, the tribe of Judah shall be kept entire and distinct until Christ come. This is a great and important truth, and a singular demonstration of the all-disposing providence of God, and of the truth and Divine authority of the Scriptures; but it seems not to be the meaning of this place,

1. Because both the foregoing and following words do evidently speak of Judah’s power and greatness, and particularly this shebet, or sceptre, is explained and restrained by the following lawgiver.

2. Because this renders the phrase improper and absurd; for the tribe had not departed from Judah, nor had they ceased to be a tribe, if the other tribes had been mixed with them in their land, as indeed they were sometimes. See 2 Chronicles 11:16.

3. Because this is not peculiar to the tribe of Judah; for in this sense the tribe did not depart from Levi, nay, that tribe was kept more distinct than that of Judah; thus also the tribe did not depart from Benjamin, as appears from Ezra 1:5 10:9 Nehemiah 11:4. Nay, it is questionable whether in this sense the tribe departed from any of the other tribes, not only because there is a distinct mention of the several tribes, Ezekiel 48:1-35, which was written after the dispersion and supposed confusion of the other tribes, and which speaks of the times after the coming of the Messiah, but also because of the great care which the Israelites generally took in distinguishing, not only their tribes, but their several families, in exact genealogies, of which we have many proofs and instances, as 1 Chronicles 4:33 5:1,7,17 7:7,9,40 9:1,22 Ezr 2:62 8:1,3 Ne 7:5,64. The Jews indeed have another device to avoid the force of this text. They say shebet signifies a rod, to wit, a rod of correction, as the word is taken Proverbs 22:15. And so they say the sense is, The tyrannical sceptre, or the rod of the oppressor, shall not cease or depart from Israel till the Messiah come, who shall save them from all their oppressors and enemies. But this is a vain and frivolous conceit; for,

4. The following sentence, which expounds the former, as it is usual in Scripture, plainly shows that this shebet, or rod, is such as is proper to the lawgiver, and therefore is a rod of authority, or a sceptre, which is called also a rod, Ezekiel 19:14, and not a rod of affliction.

5. This is contrary to the whole context, wherein there is nothing prophesied of Judah, but honour, and dominion, and victory, and safety.

6. There was no reason why the rod of affliction should be appropriated to Judah, which was common to all the tribes, and came sooner, and fell heavier, and abode longer upon the other tribes than upon Judah.

7. This interpretation is confuted by the event or history, both because the rod of correction did depart from Judah, and from them more than from the other tribes, for many generations before the coming of the Messiah; and because that rod is not removed from them, but hath continued longer and more dreadfully upon them since the coming of the Messias than ever before; which one consideration hath been the occasion of the conversion of many Jews.

8. Howsoever the modern Jews pervert this word and text out of enmity to Christ and Christians, it is certain that the ancient Jews, the LXX., and the Chaldee Paraphrast, with many others, take the word as we do, as the learned have proved out of their own writings. See my Latin Synopsis.

A lawgiver; so the Hebrew word signifies, as here, so also Numbers 21:18 Deu 33:21 Psalm 60:7 108:8 Isaiah 33:22. And the verb from whence this word comes signifies to make laws, as Proverbs 8:15, &c.; and the Hebrew word chok, which comes from the same root, constantly signifies a law or statute. Some render it the scribe, and that either the civil scribe, who belongs to the ruler; or the ecclesiastical scribe, the interpreter of the law; and so it signifies, that both the civil and the ecclesiastical power should continue in Judah till Christ came, and then should be taken away, both which the event did verify. But indeed the Hebrew word for scribe is sopher, not mechokek, which never is so used in Scripture, but always for a lawgiver, as I have showed; and so Kimchi and Aben Ezra, two late and learned Jews, with others, expound it.

From between his feet; from his posterity, or from those that come from between his feet, i.e. that are begotten and born of that tribe. And thus Kimchi, and the Chaldee Paraphrast, and other ancient Jews, understand this place. And the truth of this interpretation may appear, by comparing this with other texts of Scripture, as Deu 28:57, where

the young one is described to be one that cometh from between her (the woman’s) feet; and Ezekiel 16:25, and with those places where the word feet is used for the secret parts, as Isaiah 7:20, the hair of the feet, not properly so called, for hair seldom grows there; and 2 Kings 18:27 Isaiah 36:12, where the water which comes from the secret parts is called the water of the feet. And possibly that phrase of covering the feet, applied to them that eased their bellies, may note so much, because the Jews in that action were not to hide their feet properly so called, but their secret parts, which without due care might be discovered upon that occasion.

Shiloh, i.e. the Messias; which we need not stand to prove, because it is so expounded by all the three Chaldee Paraphrasts, and by the Jewish Talmud, and by divers of the latter Jews themselves. And the word signifies, either a peace-maker, or saviour; or, as others, her son, or one that came out of the woman’s womb, or out of that skin in which the child in the womb is wrapped, which this word, or one near akin to it, signifies. So it notes that the Messias should be born of a woman, though without the help of man. Or, as others, the sent, he who was oft promised and to be sent. And this signification may seem to be warranted by comparing John 9:7, with those places of the New Testament in which the Messias is described by that periphrasis of one sent, or to be sent, as John 3:34, &c. And the phrase here used is remarkable, till the Shiloh come, for the Shiloh, or Messiah, oft goeth under the name of him that was to come, as Matthew 21:9 Luke 7:20 13:35. And hence the kingdom of the Messiah is called the world or kingdom to come, i.e. of him who was to come, Hebrews 2:5 6:5.

Unto him shall the gathering of the people be; they shall be gathered together, or united both among themselves, and with the Jews, under him as their Head. Others, the reverence, obedience, or worship; which comes to the same thing, for they that are gathered to him, do also reverence, obey, and worship him. The Hebrew word is used only here and Proverbs 30:17.

The people, i.e. the Gentiles, as the Jews themselves understand it. And so it is a plain prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles by and under the Messiah; signifying, that whereas the ordinances of God, and means of worship and salvation, were confined to the Jews before Christ’s coming, Psalm 147:19,20, when the Messiah should come, the pale of the church should be enlarged, the partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles taken down, and the Gentiles should worship the true God and the Messias. And this is no more than is foretold and promised in other prophecies, as we shall see hereafter. The sum of this verse is, The sceptre or dominion shall be seated in the tribe of Judah, though he doth not determine when it shall come thither; but when once it shall come, it shall not depart from thence till the Messiah come; and then Judah shall lose this sceptre and other privileges, and the Gentiles shall come into the stead of the Jews, and shall embrace that Messiah whom they shall reject. So now here is an undeniable argument to prove against the Jews that the Messiah is already come, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is he, because he was to come during the time wherein the sceptre was in the hands of Judah; and about that time when Jesus Christ came the sceptre was taken away from Judah and the Jews, and hath now been lost for sixteen hundred years together. The Jews are mightily perplexed and confounded with this argument; one evidence whereof is their various and contradictory expositions of the place, whilst some of them affirm this Shiloh to be Moses, others Saul, others Jeroboam, others Nebuchadnezzar, which neither need nor deserve confutation; others David; which, though some of the acutest of the Jewish doctors assert, is as contemptible as any of the rest, it being ridiculous to say the sceptre departed from Judah under him by whom it first came into that tribe, having been till David’s time in other tribes. But the great difficulty is, how this was accomplished; for if the event fully agrees with this prophecy, the cause of the Jews is lost, and Christ must be owned as the true Messias. The sceptre was for a time in other tribes; as in Moses of the tribe of Levi; in divers of the judges, who were of several tribes; and lastly in the tribe of Benjamin under Saul; but the sceptre departed from all these. But this is prophesied as Judah’s privilege, that when once the sceptre or government came into that tribe, which it did in David’s time, it should not depart from it till Christ came, and then it should depart. And thus it came to pass. Concerning the time from David unto the captivity of Babylon there is no dispute, there being a constant succession of kings in that tribe all that time. For the time of the Babylonish captivity, wherein there may seem to be more difficulty, it is to be considered,

1. That the sceptre or government was not lost or departed from Judah, but only interrupted, and that but for seventy years at most, which in so long a space of time as above a thousand years is little to be regarded. As none will say the kingdom was departed from the house of David, because of those interreigns or interruptions which sometimes fell out in that family. Add to this, that God hath given them an absolute promise and assured hope of the restoration of Judah’s sceptre; so that this was rather a sleep than the death of that government.

2. That within these seventy years there were some remainders and beams of Judah’s sovereignty in Jehoiachin, 2 Kings 25:27; in Daniel, who was of that tribe, Daniel 2:25 5:13, and of the king’s seed, Daniel 1:3; and in the successive heads or governors of the exiles, of whom the Jewish writers say so much; and they affirm that they were always of the house of David, and were more honourable than the governors of the Jews which were left in the land of Israel.

3. All that was then left of the sceptre of the Jews was in the tribe of Judah; nor was the sceptre departed from Judah to any other tribe; and that is the thing which seems especially to be respected in this prophecy: for Judah is here compared with the rest of the tribes; and it is here signified, that the power and dominion which was in Judah, when once it came thither, should not shift from tribe to tribe, as it had done, but whilst there was any sceptre or supreme government among the Jews, it should be in that tribe, even till the coming of the Messias. But if there should happen any total, but temporary intercision or cessation of the government among all the tribes, which now was the case, that was no prejudice to the truth of this promise, nor to the privilege granted to Judah above the rest of the tribes. After the captivity, the state of the Jews was very various. Sometimes they had governors put in by the Persian king, as Zorobabel, who was also of the tribe of Judah, and, as it is supposed, nephew of Jehoiachin; and Nehemiah, whom Eusebius affirms to have been of the tribe of Judah. And though he may seem to be numbered among the priests, Nehemiah 10:8, yet a diligent reader will find that he is even there distinguished from them by his title the Tirshatha, Genesis 49:1, and the word priests, Genesis 49:8, relateth only to the rest there mentioned besides him; especially if this be compared with Nehemiah 9:38, where the princes (among whom surely Nehemiah was the chief) are distinguished from the priests. And sometimes the people chose governors, or captain-generals, as the Maccabees, and others. But under all their vicissitudes, after their return from Babylon, the chief government was evidently and unquestionably seated in the great council called Sanhedrim or Synedrium, wherein, though some of the tribe of Levi were mixed with those of the tribe of Judah, yet because they, together with other members of that council, had their power both from that tribe by which they were chosen, and in it, and for it, the sceptre did truly remain in the tribe of Judah; even as it was rightly called the Roman empire, when Trajan a Spaniard, or other foreigners, administered it; or as we call it the kingdom of Poland, when they choose a king of another nation. How great and venerable the authority of this council was among the Jews, may easily be gathered,

4. From the Divine institution of it, Numbers 11:16, whereby indeed it was at first to consist of persons indifferently chosen out of all the tribes; but now the other tribes being banished and dispersed in unknown places, and Benjamin and Levi being as it were accessions to the tribe of Judah, and in a sort incorporated with it, it now becomes as it were appropriated to the tribe of Judah, as acting in its name, and by its authority; and the whole land is called Judea, and all the people Jews, from the predominancy of that tribe above the rest.

5. From the great power and privileges anciently granted to it, Deu 17:8, &c.; 2 Chronicles 19:8,11 Psa 122:5.

6. From the testimony of Josephus, and other Jewish writers, which is most considerable in this argument, who largely describe and magnify the power and authority of it; who tell us that the power of their king was subject to that of this council; and therefore one of them addressing his speech to that council, where also the king himself was present, first salutes the senators, and after them the king. They affirm also that the power of making war or peace was vested in that council, and that Herod was tried for his life by it. If it be said that the power of this council was in a great measure taken away, which the Jews confess, John 18:31, and that the sceptre of Judea was in the hand of the Romans, and by them given to Herod, who was no Jew, but an Idumean, and this before the coming of the Messias, which is the only remaining difficulty; to this many things may be said:

7. That this happened but a few years before the coming of Christ, when Christ was even at the doors, and about to come, and therefore might well be said to be come; especially in the prophetical style, whereby things are oft said to be done which are near doing.

8. That the Jewish senators did long struggle with Herod about the government, and did not yield it up to him till his last year, when they took an oath of fealty to him, which was after Christ was born. Nor indeed was the sceptre quite gone from them then, for that council still had the power, though not of life and death, yet of civil and ecclesiastical matters. See John 18:31. So that if the sceptre was gone, the

lawgiver remained there still. Nor was their government and commonwealth quite destroyed until the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. And therefore some translate the place thus, and that with great probability, The sceptre shall not depart—until the Shiloh come, and until (which word is repeated out of the former member, as it is most usual in the Scripture)

the gathering of the people be to him, i.e. until the Gentiles be converted and brought in to Christ. And this interpretation receiveth countenance from Matthew 24:14, The gospel shall be preached in all the world, —and then shall the end come; not the end of the whole world, as it is evident, but the end of the commonwealth and government of the Jews, when the sceptre and lawgiver should be wholly taken away from that tribe and people.

He signifies the plenty of vines in Judah’s portion, that they shall be planted every where, even in the commons and highways where men travel, and where upon occasion they use to tie the beasts on which they ride to any tree which is near them. Such shall be the plenty of it, that if it were convenient, men might use wine instead of water to wash their garments.

The blood of grapes; so the wine is called also in Deu 32:14; /APC 1Ma 6:34; and by Pliny, Hesiod, and others. As oil is called the blood of the olive.

Which shows not only the plenty of wine, but also the excellency and strength of it, which, though not drunk in great quantity, or to excess, will make the eyes red. See Proverbs 23:29.

Acknowledge here and adore the Divine Providence, which directed Jacob thus exactly to foretell the portion of Zebulun, which fell to them two hundred years after this, and that not by choice, or any design of men, but merely by lot. His portion was extended from the sea of Galilee to the great Mediterranean Sea, and to such parts of it where there were convenient havens.

His border shall be unto Zidon; or, his side or coast, to wit, that which is upon the Mediterranean Sea, in near Zidon, understanding not the city, but the territory belonging to it, unto which that tribe reached upon the sea-coast; for though Asher might seem to intercept them, yet he did not reach to the sea. Or, his coast looks towards Zidon, hath it in view, and lies commodiously for commerce with that great city, which then was the mart of the nations.